The University of Virginia environmental scientist wasn't talking about the danger of overheating the planet by carbon emissions - he was talking about what he perceives as hysteria created by politicians and news media.

His remarks came at the annual breakfast meeting of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, which wrapped up its two-day annual meeting Thursday.

The global warming hysteria, he said, poses a threat to the oil and gas industry, which is seen by many as the chief offender in the release of greenhouse gases.

''There are many bills in Congress to reduce emissions - many bills to reduce the availability of your product. You have to stop this,'' he said.

He said nothing can replace oil as an energy source, and scoffed at the notion that ethanol can be a viable alternative.

''We could become the first nation in history to burn our own food supply for political purposes,'' he said.

But he cautioned his audience that claiming there is no such thing as global warming is sending the wrong message.

''Warming probably has been human-induced since 1975,'' he said. ''So get over it.''

He said, however, that the rate of warming is constant and will be so gradual that the human race will have time to adapt.

Michaels is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a think tank associated with the Libertarian Party. He was also a contributing author and reviewer of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.